Down The I-20 Chute

Up this morning at 6AM to the sound of rain − a true need in this drought stricken land.  We headed South down I-20 from Abilene towards Van Horn, TX in the Big Bend Country.  We drove passed fields of giant windmills as we headed South through the fog and the rain. 

At our first rest stop about 100 miles south, we found a placard that indicated that the first oil well of the Permian Basin Oil Boom of Texas occurred within 2 miles of the rest stop in the February, 1920.  Further down the road in Midland, we stopped for a moment of silence in respect for being in the Hometown of Laura and George Bush.  We hated to, but, passed up the option of visiting the George Bush Childhood Home….  We did see significance evidence of oil refineries dotting the road, various business that support the oil business including large stacks of oil well pumps ready for installation on drilled wells.  Truly the entire area is dominated by the oil business.

Once we had passed Midland and Odessa the traffic dropped off, the speed limit went up to 80 MPH, the mesquite trees disappeared and were replaced by low scrub bush of the desert terrain. 

We passed the Monahans Sandhills State Park that consists of 3840 acres of sand dunes, some up to 70 feet high, that stretch South as well as West into New Mexico.  Further south was the town of Pecos, a key water town on the railroad in the 1880’s now known for cantaloupes.  Elevation began to increase as we entered the Apache Mountains with elevations as high as 5600 feet. As we drove, one could see on the Western slopes there was still evidence of snow from the night before.  The Mountains are one of three exposed portions of the largest fossil reef in the world (the others are also in Texas). The reef was formed during Permian times, some 250 million years ago, when the area was submerged in the Delaware basin. Lime-secreting algae were the main reef-builders, with some sponges, bryozoans, and brachiopods; their remains and the lime they secreted formed the reef.  In several places we drove through the areas where the road had been cut through these fossil-layered rock formations.  As we drove, I kept thinking about the tropical sea that had once covered this flat and arid country millions of years ago.

We arrived in Van Horn, Texas a true hole in the wall about 3:30 PM.  Not much here…but a lovely sunset.